How To Teach a Successful Video Production Class
Setting The Pace
When I was a kid, I LOVED NASCAR. I would watch every race. Listen to every radio show about it. Read anything I could and even attended the conventions to get autographs and pictures of the cars. When I started in radio, I worked in Winston-Salem, the home of NASCAR. I never wanted to race but instead, I wanted to drive the pace car. I wanted to be the guy out front moving slowly so everyone could see me. Now the closest to a pace car that I get is when there is a state trooper on the interstate but the pacing is still a VERY major portion of my life.
Each year, I work on creating a pacing guide for my courses. It’s my one-stop-shop for what I think we need to cover and when we should cover it. The biggest key to setting up the pacing for my courses is that I am 100% flexible in my expectations. In recent talks about the pacing of his animation course, Jamie Chuven at John’s Creek HS in Atlanta put it perfectly “students take 6 weeks on something that should take 3.” That’s the hardest part, trying to figure out/remember how long it takes students to receive the lesson, comprehend the lesson, and build the product to an acceptable level.
Here’s how I attack the process….
What do I want them to know?
This is the easy part. What skills, technique, and vocabulary do I want them to master when their time on this project is done. Until this year, I have taken the first two to be the most important but I am learning that if the students learn and know the vocabulary, the skills and techniques will fall into place. I HATE doing vocabulary. I didn’t like it as a student and don’t feel comfortable doing it as a teacher but it’s extremely important.
This semester, I am pushing myself to do a weekly vocabulary lesson for each of my classes. I will push out a list of words over the weekend and the following Friday there will be an assessment. It’s clunky and stops down what I really want to do but I am learning more and more that it is essential.
What do they need to know?
This step is key in the process. This is where I layer out the elements needed to reach the goal. For example, to film, the students need to know how to set up the tripod and camera as well as the basic functions of the camera. I make certain they know those things. I drive home those fundamentals so when they want to do the “cool” stuff later, we have the same foundation to work from.
When do they need to know each step?
This step in the process is where I struggle the most. I go down so many rabbit holes it’s comical at times. I have found myself in a different room doing something completely different because the trail I went down got me so off track I just started something new.
This is truly the chicken and egg situation in a lot of aspects for me. Do I teach them how to edit first so when they shoot, they can make something with it? Do I teach them to shoot so they have something to be able to edit? Do I make sure they know all of the ins and outs of the cameras before I let them shoot?
Here’s my philosophy: What gets the students farther faster. When it comes to editing vs. filming, I always go with filming. That way they get to learn to do something while they prepare to do the next step. You can always put a camera in a kid’s hand and they come back with something that you can teach from and with but when it comes to editing, it requires you sitting and teaching (I actually split the class up so I can focus on teaching the editing.
What do I want them to produce?
I am sure there is some educational leadership term for this but I don’t know it… I always start my pacing with what product do I want the students to be able to do when we are done. For example, my advanced students are working on a new show open. This is how I taught them to shoot video with a DSLR and edit to a music track. I showed them the basics on the cameras then sent them out to shoot b-roll. When they were done with that, I gave them a handful of songs to choose from then edit the b-roll clips too in order to create the show open (Pro Tip: Shoot your own B-roll and use a different track for your demo/explanation or you will receive a load of bad attempts to copy exactly what you did….)
How am I going to grade it?
Rubric. Rubric. Rubric. That’s all I use. I spend more time on my rubrics than I do anything. I try to make them as airtight as I can when it comes to the easily measured stuff - time, exposure, edit timing. I also leave some room for my judgment, commentary, and how they can improvement.
I have an “overall” category on most rubrics where I explain that it is subjective to the student’s abilities, creativity, and overall performance. This allows me to challenge a student who can nail a perfect shot and edit like Walter Murch but doesn’t try to get better but also give me grace for a kid that doesn’t understand the ins and outs of editing but should not bomb in the grade book as they develop.
Also, because kids are kids. I only let them see what it takes to get the best grade. It’s a mind game that I play with them but early in my career, I would see kids negotiate with themselves on the things they could live without in order to get a decent grade - “it says that if I put 5 titles in I get a 5 so that will balance out the grade and I won’t worry to get it to full time.”
Creating a plan for your classroom makes life a lot easier. It allows you to prepare for weeks or months in advance. If your plan is in your head because you wrote it down, you may meet someone and be able to take advantage of an opportunity that without a plan you would not. It also helps when you are overwhelmed.
For you, it may seem a little late to get started but I highly recommend you give it a try. Plan out the rest of the school year. If you are like me, your plans are as liquid as a bucket of water with the constant fear of closure, changing schedules, etc but in August, I planned for as many scenarios as I could in order to make sure that no matter what I encountered, I would be prepared. To help you, here is a sample of my pacing guide as it is at the time of posting this.
Meet the Author, Tom White
Tom White is the digital media instructor at Morgan County High School in Madison, GA. Currently teaching TV production and animation pathways, Tom's programs have received state and national honors including the 2016 NFHS Network School Broadcast Program Of The Year. Prior to teaching, Tom was a marketing, promotions, and online content director for a major radio corporation in Atlanta. Tom studied exercise science at High Point University prior to his radio career. Despite his winding career path, his mother still thinks he is special.